THE WORLD LOST MORE THAN $13 TRILLION LAST YEAR BECAUSE OF WAR

According to the Washington post newspaper, violence and worsening conflict cost the world more than $13.6 trillion last year, according to an annual study of the toll of violence worldwide. That figure amounts to some 13 percent of global GDP.

The newspaper added that the analysis can be found within the Global Peace Index 2016 report, which is put out each year by the Institute of Economics and Peace, an Australia-based think-tank. It ranked 163 countries on the degree of peace within their borders. The results since the initiative began are not encouraging: “The last decade has seen a historic decline in world peace, interrupting the long term improvements since WWII,” a press release indicates.

Moreover, peace and safety, like the incomes of the rich and poor, are growing more unequal, with prosperous, relatively harmonious countries improving, according to the index, and countries already wracked by conflict and violence getting worse.